It is said that White gets to pick the opening but Black gets to pick the variation. So, you might think of it that way: what opening has White offered and what variation will I play? For example, White plays 1.e4, offering a King's Pawn game. But you get to decide whether you will allow White to play an open game (1. ...e5 - King's Pawn [open] game) or a closed game (1. ... c6 - Caro-Kann or 1. ... e6 - French). This means of course that you would need a reasonable response to any of White's offerings.
A 2nd idea is to play a universal opening - like 1. ... g6 or 1. ... b6, or 1. ... Nc6. However, none of these are quite as strong as the individual mainline options (some of which were discussed above).
Finally, the simplest way is to simply make sound development moves, always remaining alert for what White is threatening with his last move. This might be more profitable at your rating level, where trying to know specific openings is somewhat a waste of time (e.g., your opponents will not play main lines most of the time).
To this, I recommend answering 1.e4 with 1. ... e5 and 1.d4 with 1. ... d5, and simply making sure you develop soundly.
Hope this helps a bit.
okay, im new to chess and i can hold my own while playing white.
but black is soo much harder! i dont get it, can anyone help me with anything about it? please?